On Monday, March 30th, our current cohort of Political Science instructors connected virtually for their annual professional development experience! Attendees were given the opportunity to hear about newly emerging research in the field from four junior Political Science faculty members, and later got to engage in a tutorial for utilizing UConn Library resources to support their ECE students with a representative from the UConn Library staff. We extend our thanks to co-faculty coordinators Oksan Bayulgen, Ph.D. and Evan Perkoski, Ph.D., for their continued collaboration with ECE, and their hard work to provide such engaging professional development experiences for our instructors!

UConn POLS courses offered through Early College Experience.

Our ECE Political Science teachers convened virtually on Wednesday, February 26th, marking our first virtual professional development experience of 2025!

The theme of this year’s Political Science Workshop was Bringing Politics into the Classroom. Instructors were treated to two discussion sections, which are described below:

Faculty Discussions: Instructors heard from UConn Faculty from “comparative politics and international relations about the rise and effects of authoritarianism in world politics. With many democratic nations around the globe sliding slowly towards authoritarianism, it is important to help students understand these trends, their consequences, and what they can do.”

Guest Speaker: We extend our thanks to Denise Merrill, “a UConn alum, adjunct political science professor, and former Connecticut Secretary of State”, for serving as our keynote speaker for this event. Secretary Merrill provided an invaluable opportunity for our instructors to be in community with an individual whose career in local and state-level politics has been rich and storied.

A special thanks as well to our ECE Political Science Faculty Coordinators, Oksan Bayulgen, Ph.D. and Evan Perkoski, Ph.D., for their tireless work to support our ECE students and instructors.

Political Science courses available through UConn Early College Experience.